With absolutely no new venues in store for 2017, we think it’s about time the UCI downhill World Cups branched out a little bit.

The only problem is, places need to bid for them first. Thankfully we’ve revceieved word of at least two new bids for 2018. First is classic Slovenian venue Maribor and second is  Lošinj, a brand new venue in Croatia.

Lošinj is an island in the Adriatic Sea that currently hosts a UCI Cat 1 race, but is hoping to go one bigger in 2018. It applied for the race in August and the track was reviewed by the UCI in September. The final decision will be announced in January 2017.

Check out a headcam run from Unior Tools rider Ziga Pandur here:

From what we can tell, it looks rad. The venue looks a bit like Cairns as it’s right by the sea and doesn’t have a chairlift – let’s hope the weather isn’t quite as changeable! The track itself looks full-on Mediterranean – rocky, dusty and loose. We think it would be an awesome change of scenery from the Alps for the World Cup.

The 1.9km track has 250 metres of altitude and takes about 2:30 for the fastest guys, making it even shorter than Windham, but it does have an urban finish, which would make it totally unique. We’ll let you know the result of the application as soon as we get it.

And if you’d forgotten what Maribor looked like, here’s a quick reminder: